Utica New York in Pictures

August 26, 2011

Earthquakes and Hurricanes of DOOM.

Yes, I am alive. It was a horrific experience to sit through a 5.9 earthquake and live to tell the tale. Yes, many people were running to the store, buying gallons of water, looking for emergency preparedness items, and now thinking that maybe they should treat their families better or have more God in their life. PEOPLE! IT IS A 5.9 EARTHQUAKE....chill. Hahaha. Actually we were on the bus when the earthquake occurred so we didn't feel it but members called us and asked, "Are you ok?!?" Confused as to their concern, I asked, "Yes and how are you?" The way people here described the earthquake it was a 9.5 on the scale. Then to add to the state of New York's terror they had a hurricane for the first time in 20 years. Totally cool for me since I have never been in a hurricane. But keep in mind I am three hours east of New York City where there are lots of trees and fields. We just had a lot of rain and Santa Ana-type winds. Really fun and brought back many nostalgic memories. The Bishop even considered canceling church if nobody showed up but we actually had a great turnout and even had 2 investigators come.

Miracle this week! We were walking and bumped into our former investigator, Norma, who had moved to Pennsylvania. She said that she just moved back since she didn't like it and has been trying to get a hold of us, but lost our number since she got a new phone. So we taught her again and she said that since the earthquake her boyfriend... fiance.... baby's father (so many titles out here) said that he wants to marry her and go to church. So we will see where this all goes. Also, Johnny, our 11-year-old investigator came to church so he will be getting baptized this weekend! We are proud of the progress that he has made. He actually prays in front of us, reads his scriptures, and knows the answers to all of our questions. We came up with a lot of games for the family. His 8-year-old sister is getting baptized too. We are down to daily contact, making sure that everything goes smoothly with his interview, and that the program gets taken care of. Oh and we need to clean the font... it is gross.

That is pretty much life for us right now. We are also working with some less actives who will no longer be less active soon! We are helping get a family to the temple. They are an awesome family. We think they went inactive without realizing it; then realized when we kept trying to get a hold of them that they had missed church for 4 months. They have been faithfully coming every week since.

I have been studying the life and mission of our Savior lately and it has caused me to reflect a lot on the role He has on our lives. To see people change and improve is such a testimony to me that He lives. For if He were still dead, He wouldn't not be able to influence people in such a way. The influence of the Holy Ghost can lead those honestly seeking back on the path of blessings and purpose, back to where we are supposed to be. Now just get on it! Anyway love you all, until next week!

August 22, 2011

Steak and Lobtsa Anyone?

I wish we ate that. Anyway I was just trying to think of new and creative lines to open my letter. But Hi! Life is good, once again reporting from good old Endicott, New York. Home of "Spiedies" (meat marinated in vinegar and garlic on skewers that you put on bread) and the "Square Deal" where the founders of the city owned a shoe company and bought everything then built houses and turned around and sold them to their workers. Free health care, dental care, and carousel rides for everyone. So, we have 6 carousels here and if you ride all 6 you get a button that says, "I rode the carousel circuit!" Yes… that is on my to do list. Anyway that is the history behind this area, pretty cool and you can even google it to find more information on that.

This week began a new transfer but nothing feels different since we didn't change, which is great because we can keep working with our people. We have 1 investigator getting baptized in September and we have been working a lot with him. He is getting ready for baptism and hopefully we can keep getting his Mom to church so he can be baptized. It is funny how Satan works very hard to ensure that these things don't happen via sicknesses, family crisis, or car problems. So annoying.

We also have a less active that has been coming faithfully for almost 2 months now! So in a few more weeks she will be counted as reactivated! Jeannie is awesome, we love her a lot and have seen a HUGE change in her since we started meeting with her. She comments how she can feel it too.

Story time: So we had a lesson planned with our Spanish-speaking investigator who lives on top of the hills of death. We decided to bring a Spanish speaking member to help us teach/ drive us there. Of course as things would have it, she calls 15 minutes before the appointment and says that she is stuck at the DMV. Great. That means she will be there for hours so no chance of moving the appointment. That and Sister Duncan almost fainted from the heat at a members home 10 minutes earlier so there was no way we could walk up all those hills. I was determined to get to this lesson so I called another Spanish speaking member and she was only 3 minutes away! She picked us up and we were off. Yeah for the tender mercies of the Lord! When you ask in faith it shall be given unto you. Nothing is more important that this work we are doing and if we put forth the effort that we want something the Lord will bless us according to our faith in Him. Obviously I am working on Faith this week. And Lots of miracles are coming from it, lots of potentials are trickling in. Hopefully we can teach them all. I have faith! :)

Gave a talk at a baptism yesterday. That was a first for me, kinda awkward hopefully nobody noticed. Anyway gotta run, until next week!

August 16, 2011

Hi Family!

So transfer calls came on Saturday night, which is horrible by the way because you agonize all day over it. But Sister Duncan and I are staying together in Endicott! Yay! We are finally getting this area going and I really love serving the people here. We had an exciting week full of rain storms and walking. Funny how a few weeks ago it was hot and humid and now it wont stop raining, I thought Utah had weird weather. But we walked a TON this week- we got pedometers to track and I am pleased to announce that we have reached Pioneer status with 58 miles this week. Poor sister Duncan is getting shin splints. But when you cover 4 "villages" (yes they are villages here and not towns) we have a lot of miles to cover.

Awesome story: So we were on the bus coming home from a day in Johnson City and some guys looked at us and asked us a question about Adam and Eve. So we started talking (loudly mind you so everyone could hear, they can't leave so why not?!) and soon the ENTIRE bus was talking about God and religion. Awesome. Some arguments broke out but we got 3 potential investigators from it, hopefully they turn into something. It was great, I felt like I was at Temple Square again. Oh and we went tracting and got some people that said we could come back! And that was in the rich part of town too.

As for our investigators we have a baptismal date set for Johnny. He is 11 and in a part member family- he is our hardest investigator, zero attention span. And we soft committed another investigator Lauren for baptism as well, she is going to pray about it but it is "something that she is definitely considering". Yay! The work is moving forward. When I got here we had 2 investigators and they were not progressing. We are feeling like we are doing something in this area.

Mostly we have had a lot of success with less actives. I never realized how important that work is, when I got here I was slightly murmuring that it was the members job and not to waste our time with it. But we have seen many miracles come from doors that members couldn't get in. It is because we look good... that must be it ;) Anyway there is my update from rainy upstate New York! Miss you all!

August 8, 2011

Hello Family!

So this week we tried some new finding techniques. One of which (my personal favorite) we drew the plan of salvation in chalk on the sidewalk!! It was amazing... and then the downpour came. Seriously it rains like non other here and everyone says, "What a gentle rain" Gentle?! You try walking in it, it is out to get us. It is cool because it is like in the movies when you can see a wall of water coming towards you... so we try to outrun it. Fail. Anyway so plan of salvation in chalk will have to be recreated sometime.

Funny story for the week: So we were walking around before we had to be in our apartment by 9 when this kid about our age walks up with a beer in his hand. "Hey are you Mormons!?" My thought was "this is going to be interesting". But he said that he had no idea what we were about... yes he was slightly drunk. But we offered to teach him more and he got really excited so we planned to meet him at the library the next day. We went home laughing because we didn't really think that he would even remember our conversation. The next day at 1:30 on the dot, he walks in the library! He apologized for being drunk but said that he remembered our conversation. He has seen us walk around town for a month and it took a few (try 6) beers to give him the courage to speak to us. God works in mysterious ways? Satan? Whatever so he is awesome with a lot of questions. He has zero concept of religion and reading the scriptures is extremely painful BUT we get through it and explain what it means.

We have had a lot of success this transfer with less actives. We are working with 5 families in particular and 3 are on their way to re-activity! Sister Duncan really has a gift for them, glad she is here.

Our ward had a "Corn Roast" this past Saturday and it was great, lots of people came! None of them were our investigators but that is ok life goes on. Next week is transfers so we will see what happens to us. This area hasn't had consistency with sisters for a very long time so I could see not much changing. Anyway you will all find out next week, bye!

August 1, 2011

Hey!

First we had a zone conference which was slightly different than how we did them at temple square. First we had to drive an hour to get there and second there was zero role playing. Nice change, I am a fan (but don't tell them at the square). It was very spiritually uplifting especially since the week before we dropped many people and were unsuccessful at finding any potentials. Our main investigator, Norma, is moving to PA (nobody says Pennsylvania out here, they just say PA) because her apartment has high traces of lead and her kids all have poisonous levels of lead. I would move too. Anyway but once we dropped her we found people! That is why I love dropping people- I care, don't get me wrong, but the Lord blesses you.

We went to a scheduled lesson with a potential investigator, he wasn't there but his mother in law was. She was actually sitting with her son who is a member! We asked if we could teach her and she agreed. We have taught her two lessons so far. We asked why she was interested and she said that she hopes to understand her son but also see if this is something she likes. We have also taught her son in law as well. Then we were walking in another part of our area called Johnson City and ran into a lady with 5 kids. She said we could come back too! We taught her the restoration and when we asked if she had ever wondered why there are so many churches she said, "I don't know! That is why I go to two!" Well, hopefully we can get it down to one :) We also found a man sitting on his porch who was almost baptized. According to him he was dressed in white and everything and then his preacher came and took him away. Not sure how accurate that story was but he said that he was thinking about the church and wanted to go back, because his life was so peaceful there.

That is something that I have really come to appreciate from this church: it changes people. There is a recent convert in the ward of a week (we also have elders in the ward) and he glows. You can spot him in a crowd of people; he is happy and seems so at ease about everything. His friends notice too. That is why we focus on the atonement so much, because this is what it can do for people... so open your doors and don't slam them in our face. But hey we actually got someone to let us in! Amazing! Anyway now that we finally have the ball rolling we can keep it going. Oh I gave a talk in church yesterday AND we taught the 3rd hour on missionary work. I spoke on the plan of salvation which is the same topic I was given for my farewell talk, I laughed. Anyway gotta run bye!